Thursday, November 18, 2010

A Bio of Sorts

I am supposed to be writing a bio of Paul and me to send to the folks at Osa Mountain Village. Since we are all coming from around the world to live together in this community, the web designer wants to include info on us on the webpage so we can get to know who our neighbors will be.

I've been avoiding it. Writer's block, I could say. But mostly it is not knowing how to summarize ourselves in a paragraph enough to get our new neighbors to like us. It's a bit like internet dating.

So, I thought I'd share my writing process with you. I started just free-writing and eventually the bio appeared. At the end. Of course. :)

I did, however, know exactly what picture I wanted to use for our bios:

Bio for Osa Mountain Village:

Hi future neighbors! We’re so excited about joining you and living in Costa Rica with our family. Our hope is to make the full-time move in the summer of 2013. I know. It sounds forever away. (Sigh) But that’s the way it will have to work for us. Maybe that will give us the time to learn some Spanish – ‘cuz we know about six words. And. It seems important that we would learn some before moving to a Spanish-speaking country. You know?

I’m supposed to be writing a bio for my husband and myself, so that you will know a little about us. Wouldn’t it be cool if we were able to make friends before we actually all moved in next door to one another?

Why I want to move to OMV: for the adventure of moving to a new country, for the increased time that I’ll be able to spend with my family (especially my husband who works long hours with unpredictability in his schedule), and so we can have the sheer joy and excitement of starting our own businesses and working for ourselves. We could perhaps have done this in the States, but it would’ve taken us far longer to accomplish because of the cost of living being higher here – and the market for our businesses being saturated.

What we hope to get from OMV: an increased feeling of community. I want to know my neighbors and have our children play with yours. I want to work towards common goals (sustainability, permaculture, living off grid, sharing responsibilities, community-building, etc). I want to make new friends and live through new experiences. I want to write about all of it.

A little about us:

Paul is a thinker. He sits back and listens. He smiles and likes to joke around with our kids. He’s silly. He’s great one-on-one or in small (5 people?) groups. Not so much with anything bigger. He’s a leader. He’s a superb salesman. He looks at the big picture. He likes to write, act, and talk politics. Lefty progressive politics. He’s agnostic and an existentialist, but will talk about Jesus and the Bible with you as long as you don’t pray for his conversion to Christianity. He likes live music … all of it. Especially anything with a bluesy hint to it. He loves watching movies and reading but also wants to get out more in the world and experience and be more active. And to connect with those around him on a deeper level.

Valerie is an experiencer. That’s how she relates to the world. Dips in and swims around in it and THEN thinks about what just happened. She’s passionate about whatever she’s doing or learning about. In the last year that’s been: writing, knitting, unschooling her kids, urban homesteading, eating healthier, advocating for her son’s needs at his new school, Bikram yoga, No Shame Theatre, communicating on a deeper level with her husband, living an alternative sexual lifestyle, traveling, making new friends and loving everyone. She’s a lousy housekeeper and doesn’t like cooking, mostly because she forgets about dinner until 5:45pm and then has to think of something quick – which often turns out to not be very healthy. She loves reading and has bookshelves of books she hasn’t yet read but still compulsively buys. She’s writing a memoir right now and has a blog or two in her pocket. When she moves to Costa Rica, she will miss Bikram yoga, decaf lattes (why is there no decaf coffee in Costa Rica??), and her Smart phone. And Netflix! And wearing a scarf on chilly days. But mostly her best friends Tamara and Julian.

Oh. And she’s not religious. Organized religion scares the crap out of her … but she identifies as pagan.

So there it was. In the last bit. I often have to "clear my throat" on the page before I can get to the meat of what I want. Of course, I'll still have to edit it a bit and polish it, but the meat is there. And for those of you that actually know us in person, have I hit the mark? Is that a good representation of us?